


The Cure for Anything

by augustmonsoon



Category: Moonlight (2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 14:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10618836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/augustmonsoon/pseuds/augustmonsoon
Summary: “Y’know lil’ man,” Kevin said to his son, he was wearing a smile now that meant he was going to get his way, at least where Chiron was concerned. “Chiron here, he real good at swimming, taught me to swim when we was kids”. Kevin Jr’s eyes lit up in a way that meant Chiron would never be able to say no now.Or, Chiron, Kevin and Kevin Jr go swimming, and Chiron decides to stay.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For V, on her birthday.

Sweat prickled at Chiron’s neck. The sun was beating down with midday ferocity as he walked through familiar streets. The soles of his sneakers were coming loose and they drummed a wet thwack thwack beat on the paving stones as he walked. He could’ve traced a map of his childhood with his footsteps; here was the corner he got beat up every afternoon all through middle school, and here the little alley on which was the apartment he first met Juan, here the road he sped down on the way to Teresa’s, and so on. He had the sensation of being followed but when he stopped to look behind him there was nobody there, there was nobody anywhere; each of the roads was eerily empty and still. He came to the boulevard that ran beside the oceanfront as day turned to dusk, this was empty too, out here on the edge of town this wasn’t so unusual. The streetlamps flickered to life one by one, their light pooling in oily spills of halogen on the sidewalk. The shredded leaves of the banana trees lining the road stood at attention, deathly still without a breeze to sway them. 

Chiron shivered, the heat of the day had chilled suddenly in the way that places by the ocean had a habit of doing. The beach was a dullish purple in the dark, like a bruise, the ocean lay an inky smudge in the distance. Chiron left his sneakers by the road and walked barefoot towards the water, savouring the grit under his feet. By the surf, sand gave way to shell shards and tangles of seaweed. Fat globes of translucence, the carcasses of washed up jellyfish shimmered in the moonlight. Chiron kept walking. He walked straight into the ocean, letting the waves break first against his ankles, then his calves, his knees, and then his belly. When he was waist deep, the ground gave way suddenly. Chiron took another step. In an instant, he was submerged to his neck. He kept walking. Only it wasn’t walking anymore, Chiron was dissolving into the ocean as if he were a pillar of salt, or a sugar cube, his legs curled upwards like commas and became waves. He tipped his head back and the water washed over him, decomposing him down into droplets. Faraway he could hear a voice, his momma’s voice, calling up to him from a memory. For once he didn’t feel afraid; he felt nothing at all. As Chiron drifted further out her voice faded into a dull roar, like the sound of the ocean heard through a conch, which wasn’t the ocean at all but the rush of blood pulsing in his head. 

Chiron woke with a gasp. He kept his eyes squeezed shut for a moment, willing himself back into the dream. In wisps the last vestiges of the deep, deep blue behind his eyelids disappeared. His limbs felt his again; heavy, and solid, and apart in the world. The intensity of reality sat on his chest like a rock. Chiron untangled himself from the bed sheets.

Morning light was coming in through slatted blinds, dividing Kevin’s front room into bands of light and shade. It was a pleasant room, scruffy in a way that seemed well loved; a wilting plant sat in a corner, there were a few cookery books lying about with post-its stuck in between the pages. The wall across from the couch was covered in a child’s crayon drawings. Chiron could pick out Kevin in most of them – a column of brown scribbles with a wide white smile and the centre of a bulbous head, he was accompanied in most of the drawings by a figure labelled, ”Momma”, and between the two, was featured a smaller column of brown sporting a messy halo of an afro. Chiron looked at each piece of paper carefully, trying to imagine the child that had drawn them. He remembered Kevin had shown him a tiny photograph of his son in the diner but all Chiron could picture when he thought of Kevin Jr was Kevin when they were kids; Kevin’s smile, his always scabbed knees, the swagger he walked with even then, the way he had made Chiron feel safe in a way that almost no one else ever had. 

Chiron folded his bedsheet precisely and laid it by the side of the couch, carefully placing the pillow on top. He kept expecting to hear the sound of the shower or Kevin’s voice calling out from another room. The thought made him nervous, but the apartment was quiet, Kevin didn’t seem to be in. Chiron waited a while but then got up to leave. He wondered whether he should leave a note, but he didn’t know what he’d write beyond “goodbye”. He’d said all he had left to say to Kevin. In truth, he had said more than he’d intended when he first took the turning on the interstate towards Miami instead of turning back to Atlanta. Besides, there was no paper on which to write a note.

Chiron took one last look around the apartment, opened the front door and walked out. The heat outside made the air feel solid. Across the street from the block Chiron could see a flash of blue that meant the ocean. Laughter, children’s voices, the pounding beat of a 2Pac track from a tinny car radio floated up from the beach. In the brightness of the day the water didn’t tempt him. His car was parked by some bougainvillea that he hadn’t noticed the night before. Big blousy pink blooms lay over the hood, he brushed them off, scattering silken petals by his feet. 

He was about to open the driver’s side door when he heard Kevin’s voice behind him. 

“Where you goin’, man?” Kevin asked holding up a brown paper bag, “I brought yo’ ass donuts!”

Beside Kevin stood a six-year-old boy who looked almost exactly like Kevin had done at that age, right down to the gold chain around his neck. He was looking at Chiron with open curiosity, eyes flicking from his face to his car. 

“When I finish my breakfast, my daddy gon’ teach me how to swim,” he declared, puffing out his chest. Kevin smiled down him indulgently and laid a hand on his son’s head to hush him. 

“I said maybe,” he turned back to Chiron – “Chiron, this my lil’ man, Kevin Jr, and this” he said to his son, “is Chiron”, he paused for a second looking up at Chiron, a smile tugged at his lips like he couldn’t help but smile to see Chiron in front him, “he an old friend.” 

Kevin Jr thrust out a small hand. Chiron took it in his own and shook it gently.

“Nice to meet you, Kevin Jr,” he said, his seriousness made Kevin Jr giggle. 

*

Chiron let himself be herded inside by Kevin and took the donut offered gratefully, wolfing it down with a haste that made Kevin laugh. Chiron liked the way it sounded, Kevin’s easy laughter that made his shoulder shake and made his eyes crinkle. 

“Listen man,” said Chiron as Kevin was putting away the coffee cups, “I gotta get goin’”. 

Kevin put down the dishcloth he had slung over his shoulder, “c’mon you ain’t even been by the ocean yet, you gon’ come back to Liberty City after all these years and not go to the water?”

He rolled his eyes when Chiron shook his head. 

“Y’know lil’ man,” he said to his son, he was wearing a smile now that meant he was going to get his way, at least where Chiron was concerned, “Chiron here, he real good at swimming, taught me to swim when we was kids”. 

Kevin Jr’s eyes lit up in a way that meant Chiron would never be able to say no now. 

*

Kevin took his son’s hand when they crossed the road to the beach, and without missing a beat Kevin Jr held out his other hand to Chiron, who was on his other side. Chiron took the tiny offered hand in his own, and held it gingerly, suddenly afraid he might crush Kevin Jr’s small fingers in his grip. 

The beach was even noisier and even more crowded than it had seemed from the parking lot. Kids were playing jump rope and kicking about balls, shrieking with laughter. High school girls in bikinis lay in rows peeking out over their sunglasses at the teenage boys who hovered nearby, spitting verses in circles and looking furtively over at the girls. Moms fussed around toddlers or sat back gossiping with their friends. An old couple had fallen asleep in their deck chairs holding hands. 

The three of them shrugged off their t-shirts by a bench and left it with a towel. Chiron tried not to look at Kevin as he stretched up to pull his shirt over his head, but looked anyway at the clenching and unclenching of the muscles in his arms, the flutter of the muscles in Kevin’s stomach, the whorl of fading ink against his ribs, his shoulders.  
Kevin Jr darted away from them as soon as he’d gotten down to his shorts, but when he got right up to the water’s edge, he stopped dead. By the time Kevin and Chiron reached him a few moments later, he was still standing just out of reach of the encroaching tide and looked determinedly at the surf, trying somehow to stare it down.

“It ain’t gon’ bite,” said Kevin, at this encouragement Kevin Jr extended a small foot into the water but then just as drew it back. 

They stood, the three of them, looking down at the water which rushed towards their toes for a long while until the tide swept in as far as Kevin and Chiron’s feet, still not quite reaching Kevin Jr . Finally, Kevin lost his patience and scooped up Kevin Jr into his arms and strode into the water. He stood a little way in, water lapping at his shin, his son clinging to his hip, and extended a hand towards Chiron. 

“You comin’ or what?”

Chiron looked at Kevin’s hand, the pale palm with its deeply drawn lines, the familiar square tipped fingers, now calloused, the brown skin of his wrist shiny with old burns. He had stared at this hand across a classroom wrapped around a pencil, had watched these hands fly as Kevin gesticulated as he rapped on the edge of the basketball court while Chiron sat away from the throng. He’d seen this hand on the small of some girl’s back, thumb circling lazily and imagined it on his own skin. He’d dreamt about these hands, wanted these hands on his body, on his belly, his face, on the crook of his neck. He’d felt these hands on him in love and curled into fists in violence. All he’d wanted as long as he could remember, were these hands. 

Seaweed snagged at Chiron’s ankles as he took Kevin’s hand in his own and walked into the water. Chiron wriggled his toes, settling his foot into the silt. Kevin didn’t let go of his hand so Chiron didn’t either. Slowly, they moved further out into the ocean. 

Finally his fear somewhat abated, and intrigued again by the water, Kevin Jr squirmed out of his father’s hold and into the water. A brief moment of panic flitted across his young face when his feet couldn’t find the bottom. Instinctively, he started kicking furiously, creating splashy ripples that rocked against Chiron and Kevin, knocking their hips together and then apart again. 

Kevin still hadn’t let go of his hand, Chiron unlaced their fingers to reach out to Kevin Jr. 

‘That’s it lil’ man, keep doin’ whatchu doin’,” he said, holding the boy steady with two hands on either side of his skinny hips. “Now move your arms real slow, real smooth, like you slicing the air and the water – that’s it”. 

Kevin Jr was a quick learner, far more at ease with his body than Chiron had been at his age, or indeed any age since. He reminded Chiron of Kevin in that regard, the way Kevin had always seemed to have complete control over his limbs, even when he had shot up like a weed in middle school. Chiron even now, bound in muscle, felt like a marionette on a string. 

They stayed in the water long after most of the beach had cleared, Kevin Jr swimming around them in circles growing more confident with each stroke. Kevin kept up a steady stream of conversation about the people they’d known growing up, where they’d gone, who they’d had babies with, the ones that had been locked up, the ones who were out again, the ones they’d buried. Chiron couldn’t remember half the names, and the rest he didn’t particularly care about but he nodded and listened to Kevin’s voice rise and fall above the sound of the sea. When Kevin Jr began to falter, arm and legs weakening, Kevin took him in his arms again and headed back to the apartment with a promise to Chiron that he’d be back. 

The vast brilliant blue of the sky was dimming to navy, the few clouds there were turned from white to lemon to slashes of scarlet and tangerine. Chiron stayed in the water, savouring the chill of the water against his skin and marvelling at the way the pads of his fingertips were becoming wrinkled like raisins. He ducked his head down under the water for a moment wondering if he could recapture the feeling of dissolving into the sea. He kept himself submerged for as long as he could, eyes squeezed shut, until the water forced its way in through his nostrils and his throat and chest burned with the effort of holding his breath. It was no good; it was the water not reality that felt heavy now. When he rose again, spluttering, he felt saw Kevin had returned and was sitting a few paces from the water’s edge, watching him, knees drawn up to his chest.  
Chiron waded out of the ocean join Kevin. 

“You got a great kid, man”, said Chiron settling himself down in the sand and shaking his head to dry the water from his hair. 

Kevin smiled wide, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “He somethin’ special alright, kept me on the level ever since he was born.” 

They sat side by side looking at the waves come and go in easy silence. Their hands rested a fraction of an inch apart so that Chiron was acutely aware of the way their fingers almost but didn’t quite touch. Every so often Kevin’s eyes would flick to the droplets that ran in rivulets down the curves and dips of the muscles of the Chiron’s arms. Kevin’s eyes on him made Chiron feel taut inside, like a wire pulled tight almost to breaking point, like he would ring out a clear high note if plucked. 

The sun had nearly set when Kevin cleared his throat as if he might speak, but he thought the better of it and instead scrubbed at the back of his neck with one hand. Then he squared his shoulders a little, with his eyes determinedly on the horizon he said; “hey man, you sure you gotta go?”

Chiron huffed out a laugh which it sounded hollow even to him; “and what? Stay here? In Liberty City?”

“Why not?” replied Kevin, turning to look at Chiron.

“You said yo’self this a falling apart town,” Chiron replied; “there ain’t nothin’ here for me.”

The smile had slipped off Kevin’s face, the strength of his gaze had become difficult to; “you ain’t got shit back in Atlanta neither”. He turned back to the sea; “at least you wouldn’t be trappin’, might still have a future.”

Chiron thought about his life in Atlanta, his tiny empty apartment, the feel of a gun hot against his palm, the faces of the scared little boys trying to be tough he sent out to the streets. He tried not to think too much about what future Kevin could mean. 

“I guess you right,” he conceded. 

After a long while, considering his answer carefully, Kevin said; “y’know it ain’t true, you got people here, you got Theresa - ” he broke himself off as if he was about to say too much, then firmly, but so quietly that Chiron wasn’t sure at first he’d heard right, he added; “you got me, if you want.” 

“I ain’t promisin nothing,” Chiron said, not quite knowing what he wasn’t promising. 

“I ain’t asking you to,” Kevin replied, his lips were curling upwards again, the lines of his shoulders had shifted as if a weight had been lifted off them. Chiron smiled back, the sun glinting off his grille. The last rays on sunlight lingered on Kevin’s brown skin illuminating him in bronze and gold.

They watched the sun sink beyond the edge of the horizon like a yolk splitting open, spilling its reflection into the darkening water. Kevin began to talk again, stories about the diner, stories about his son, and Chiron listened, sometimes adding his own stories. Together they started to fill in the blanks of the years they had been apart.  
Without them realising, the sun dipped beneath the waves and the sky above them deepened into indigo. The moon, rising above the palm leaves and the banana trees, grew brighter.


End file.
